GARLAND — A clash of the Class 2A volleyball titans took place Thursday when No. 2 Bushland went head-to-head with No. 1 Crawford in a Class 2A state semifinal.

Bushland was the titan with more muscle, however, proving the rankings wrong with 26-24, 25-17, 25-22 win against Crawford.

“I think we played a little tight at the beginning,” Bushland coach JaNeen Eudy said. “We are a very high-percentage serving team. When we go out and miss the first three serves it tells me we are a little tight. They are a great defensive team and we respect what they did out there. Offensively, we have a lot of weapons. We are very balanced.

Bushland advanced to face Schulenburg (41-3) in the Class 2A state championship at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Curtis Culwell Center in Garland. Schulenburg (41-3) beat defending state champion Brock in the other semifinal.

Bushland trailed Crawford 23-20 late in set one, but sophomore middle blocker Anna Graham scored four points and nabbed a block to lead Bushland to a 26-24 set one win.

“I just want to win state,” Graham said. “I told myself I’m going to get the job done, and that’s what I went out there and did.”

Eudy said she never knew the team was that close to its first set loss of the postseason. Erin Hay served for most of the final run.

“I’m not a scoreboard watcher so I didn’t even know we were down 23-20,” Eudy said. “Erin has a hard serve to read. They were basically out of system for the last five points. I thought that was a momentum changer when Erin took them out of system.”

Senior Brett Zaccardo said Bushland has a never-quit attitude

“It shows that we have that fight in us,” Zaccardo said. “Even when we are down, most teams quit or turn on each other, we don’t do that.”

Eudy credited a tough defense for the win.

“The big match difference to me was blocking,” Eudy said. “Going in these girls know my biggest concern is blocking. Our blocking was phenomenal tonight. No high school coach could ask for a better blocking game than what we had tonight.”

Bushland will seek its third volleyball state title. The Lady Falcons won 2A titles in 2006 and ’07.

Crawford coach Jeff Coker said Bushland was hard enough to play before his team’s senior leader Ellen Whitley went down to injury.

“Obviously, we didn’t have a plan for Ellen getting hurt,” Coker said. “She’s a huge part of our team. She means so much to us. We were ahead in game one and probably should have found a way to close it but didn’t. Give credit to Bushland. They played great on defense. They made some adjustments.”